Those who have read my book, “First Vespers,” will not be at
all surprised to know that I do not believe that I am a descendant of a
primate; or that fish once crawled out of the sea to become land animals; or
that evolution is anything more than an adaptation within a given species; and
yet, I am fascinated by the Coelacanth.
The Coelacanth is the most famous of all "living fossils" because it is the best known example of a "Lazarus Taxon", this is, animals that were supposed to be long extinct (66 million years previously) and were unexpectedly found to be alive. Coelacanths were supposed to have become extinct in the Cretaceous period, along with the dinosaurs, but in 1938, a live specimen was caught in South Africa; nearly 80 years after Darwin's publication, "On the Origin of Species."
Coelacanths are large predators, up to 2 meters (6′ 6″) long; they feed on smaller fish,
including small sharks, and are usually found in deep, dark waters. Although
rarely captured, Coelacanths are
critically endangered. They are nocturnal drift-hunters. Their
body is covered in scales that act as armor. Coelacanths have 8 fins – 2 dorsal fins, 2 pectoral fins,
2 pelvic fins, 1 anal fin, and 1 three-lobed caudal fin. At the back of the
skull, the Coelacanth possesses a hinge, the intra-cranial joint, which allows
it to open its mouth extremely wide. The eyes of the Coelacanth are very large,
while the mouth is very small. The eye is acclimatized to seeing in poor light
by having rods that absorb mostly low wavelengths. The vision of Coelacanths
consists of a mainly blue-shifted color capacity. The heart of the Coelacanth is shaped
differently from that of most modern fish; the heart's chambers are arranged in
a straight tube.The Coelacanth's auditory
reception is mediated by its inner ear.
Since 1938, more specimens have been seen and photographed,
and a second Coelacanth colony was even found in Indonesia in 1999. On Sunday,
August 24, 2014, I watched a documentary of this discovery on television with
eager anticipation. More closely related to lungfish,
reptiles, and mammals than to the ray-finned fishes, Coelacanths have commonly
been considered by evolutionists to be a transitional species between fish and
tetra pods (four-footed species). The vertebrate-to-land transition is considered to be one of the most
important steps in evolutionary history. I was curious to see how this “transitional
species” would be explained by evolutionists now that it has been found to
still be alive and virtually unchanged since first being documented in the fossil
record, 66 million years ago.
The answer was simple. The Coelacanth
is not a “transition species;” but rather, a species critical to our
understanding the vertebrate-to-land transition. It was concluded that the
closest living fish to the tetra-pod (four-footed species) ancestor is now the lungfish, not the Coelacanth. How can
this be? The Coelacanth has enamel covered teeth and hand-like fins that
connect directly to its backbone. Besides, the lungfish is already known to
exist and according to the fossil record, has been around for 380 million years.
This seems erringly similar to the circular logic that was used to convince all
of Europe that the world was flat.
I am from the generation before
evolution was taught as a fact and reinforced by everything that we read and
see on television. To me, there is no greater proof of creation than the
“transition species.” Two fish that have existed for between 66 and 380 million
years without change tell me that there really isn’t much going on with
evolution.
My Rambling Thoughts,
David